Hello,

Happy New Year! Isn’t it a great feeling that you are sitting here reading this, and that the world didn’t end in December? I know that being thankful is typically for the month of November, but considering that I didn’t have this blog in November, and that we are getting this semester rolling – I think that this is the perfect time to talk about how thankful I am for many things in my life. (Sorry for the run-on sentence.)

Just this past week, I had my first shift at the Portage Community Center as their Marketing and Development Intern. This is my first intern position of many (I hope!), and I am eager to leave my mark with the programs and my coordinator.

My assignment that I will be working on throughout the semester is called the Cinderella Project. It began as a Prom Dress Giveaway for one of the high schools in the area, grew the next year to serve all of the high schools in Portage, and now has expanded to being county wide. I get to put together the entire event, from dress collection, to advertising, to contacting different businesses for donations of time and supplies, to the actual execution of the event. I cannot wait to meet the girls that are impacted by this program and see how this can become even better and more efficient in the next few years.

Having this internship is a great blessing to me. So often, being stuck in the world of typical “college student”, I can get too focused on my problems and, for lack of a better term: my “first world problems”. You know the ones that I am talking about. “UGH, my charger for my laptop is all the way in my car, now I have to go walk outside and get it.” Or perhaps one I was using all break, “There is nothing good on On-Demand OR Netflix”. It is funny, because you take a step outside of yourself after something like that comes out of your mouth, and you wonder what the heck you have been doing with your life. There are people in the world who do not get to watch TV, let alone think about having that much free time to lay around for a month straight eating your mother’s cooking and watching Once Upon a Time.

While I love being a college student, it is very easy to become preoccupied with the here and now and forget what your goals are for the future. Mine specifically have to do with social justice leadership, fundraising, and marketing. This internship is helping me to focus on my future and what my passion is at its core. I am incredibly thankful for it.

This is my last semester as a lower-level undergraduate student. I have already done so much since I first walked on campus a year and a half ago. The opportunities that I have been given have been life changing, and I cannot wait to see how else I will be molded in the coming years. Can’t wait to post again soon!

With Bronco Love,

Jazz